


THE RISE AND FALL OF KYLO REN

by Lil_Lola_Blue



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Ben Solo Lives, F/M, Fix-It, Han Solo Lives, Movie: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Smuggler Ben Solo, Star Wars: The Last Jedi Fix-It, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:21:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27986109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lil_Lola_Blue/pseuds/Lil_Lola_Blue
Summary: It's the story you know. Only better. I've cut out much of the Gratuitous Character Death, closed up the Holes in the Plot Big Enough to Drive Trucks Through, made Ben/Kylo A Man With A Plan rather than a Child In A Mask. I've given Rey more to do than be a Mary Sue, and beefed up the parts of Han, Luke and Leia, inserted some business for the Force Ghosts to handle, and I've added MORE sex, MORE adventure, and MORE space piracy for good measure. Heck, I've even tried to give Poe something to do outside of Poe being Discount Han Solo, and Finn something other than becoming Finn Friendzone. And they both get to do more than be the comedy relief. I've even thrown in a little, ahem, Imperial Entanglement with Kylo and one of his fellow First Order officers. Want to know if it's Hux? Phasma? General Pryde? You'll just have to read on.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 7
Kudos: 8





	1. You can Get It If You Really Want

**Chapter One: You Can Get It If You Really Want**

Master Snoke, what do you mean I don’t get a command ship?”

Snoke laughed.

“Why would I give you a command ship, boy? You’re only twenty-five years old. Do you think just because you’re all dressed up like you’re young Lord Vader, that’s who you are? And why would you need a Star Destroyer? To impress your she-Devil, Phasma? Or should I say, Captain Phasma. She’s so impressed with you, she has a veritable harem of other lovers. Of course, she hasn’t killed you, and she’s given you a set day to entertain her, so you must have something she wants. So, you’ve discovered you have some considerable skill as a cocksman? Good for you, boy. If you can keep that she-Devil quiet and content that is all the better for me. But surviving your training and getting onto Phasma’s schedule is not good enough for me to give you a Star Destroyer. You may go, apprentice.”

Kylo Ren genuflected to his Master, and left his throne room.

“Don’t you think you were a little harsh with the boy, Master Snoke?” General Pryde asked.

Snoke cackled.

“Purposely. It’s time we discover just what my apprentice is made of.”

***

The buzzing of the intercom jolted Phasma as she put her uniform on.

“Phasma, get my command crew ready. We’re going on a mission.”

“I had no orders from Master Snoke.”

“He isn’t the only man on this ship who gives orders.”

“Are you a man, now, Kylo? Even with your pants on?”

“Come with me. You’ll see just what kind of man I am. Have you ever been taken by a man who has taken a Star Destroyer?”

“No.”

“You will be. Soon.”

***

“What’s the problem FN2187?”

“The Finalizer isn’t giving us permission to land your shuttle on the flight deck.”

“Give me the mic. Finalizer, this is Kylo Ren, Lord Vader. Are you going to let me land, or do I have to start shooting?”

“But Master Snoke…”

“I am also your Lord and Master. Do what I tell you to. At once.”

“Yes sir.”

Kylo Ren hung up the mic.

“What are we going to do with the Finalizer, sir?” FN 2187 asked.

“She’s got her legs open. He’s a pirate and a warlord. He’s going to take her.” Phasma answered.

With some awe in her voice.

“Troopers, I want you to stay in the launch, until I call for you. Captain Phasma? You’re coming with me.”

***

The Captain of the Finalizer, a Captain Azrael made his way to the flight deck with a few of his officers, just as Kylo Ren’s command shuttle landed.

He had no idea who this pipsqueak using Lord Vader’s name in vain was, but he wasn’t going to put up with one of Snoke’s black hooded monks pushing him around.

Then, the gate of the launch opened.

In a black swirl of billowing cape, a huge, burly, commanding man, dressed all in black, wearing a black mask, disembarked.

So did a tall woman in a caped chrome Stormtrooper uniform.

He ignited a red lightsaber, with a hilt like a sword, but made of red fire.

The man who called himself Lord Vader took his time walking towards them.

As if he had all day.

“By the gods, Captain, he’s back! He’s come back from the dead, back from Hell, itself!”

But this man, this man who had the very spirit of Lord Vader, had a different voice.

“I told you that I was Kylo Ren, Lord Vader. What kind of reception is this? You, are you the Captain of this ship?”

“Yes, my Lord.”

“I don’t like having to repeat myself. I am Kylo Ren, Lord Vader, and I am now the Captain of this ship. It’s mine, and so is everything in it. Do you have any objections?”

“Do you have any orders to that…”

The man calling himself Kylo Ren picked up Captain Azrael by the throat, and lifted him into the air.

“Captain Phasma, if any of them move? Kill them.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

Kylo Ren addressed himself to Captain Azrael.

“I find your lack of respect disturbing. But I can overlook that. Insubordination, however, is something that I will not tolerate.”

Kylo Ren carried heaved Captain Azrael over his head, by his neck and his nuts. He carried the man to the landing bay doors, opened them with a nod of his head, and threw the recalcitrant Captain out into space.

He waved closed the doors.

“Which one of you is the First Mate? Space is vast. And I have all day. Phasma? Kill the one who looks like he or she might be the First Mate. And if any of the rest of them complain? We’ll get a plank, and make them walk it into space.”

The first mate knelt on one knee, and the rest of the officers did the same.

“I am the First Mate. The acting Captain. And as the Acting Captain, I hereby surrender my command to you. The Finalizer is yours, young Lord Vader.” She said.

“Excellent. Phasma, give the order to my command crew. They may disembark. Take them to the barracks, and find them berths. First Mate?”

The man stood.

“Yes, my Lord?”

“Show me to the Captain’s quarters. I’ll want to begin the renovations right away. Captain Phasma? I will want to discuss my next move with you in my quarters. Tonight.”

“Certainly, my Lord.”

***

Phasma had no idea why Kylo wanted to take her to the cargo bay in the middle of the night.

“Kylo, you wicked man, why am I out of bed at this hour? You can’t possibly have any more fuck left in you.”

“I will if this is what I think it is.”

Until he turned on the lights.

“Holy Mother Force!” Phasma exclaimed.

The cargo bay was full, from top to bottom, with the spoils of sixty years of Galactic war.

“Hard again.” Kylo breathed.

He began running up and down the aisles.

“And I didn’t even have to fire a shot! You know what this is, Phasma? It’s not just guns, coaxium, and chests of Imperial gold coins, among other treasures. It’s the seeds to sew an Empire. My Empire. My father said I was never the son he wanted? That I was weak, and that I didn’t deserve to carry his name? We’ll see about that. What about you, killer? Do you still think I’m only a man, when I have my pants off?”

“You never cease to surprise me, Kylo. I’m really starting to get quite fond of you.”

“That’s not much. But coming from you? I’ll take it.”


	2. The Punk and the Godfather

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kylo and Han pursue a father and son reunion in the name of fortune and glory, and discover that they have something in common. They are both ruthless mercenary pirates.

**Two Years Later**

Han Solo had no idea what Snoke’s Number One guy would want with a smuggler like him, but he was about to find out.

The Stormtrooper brought him and Chewie to a conference room.

The big man in a black mask and a black cape sitting at the head of the table brought back some bad memories.

Han was in the presence of another Vader.

He could feel it.

“Take their binders off. Leave us.” The man told the trooper.

The trooper did as he was ordered.

“Come to the head of the table, gentlemen.”

Han sat on one side of the Man in the Black Mask, and Chewie sat on the other.

“Did either of you pirates ever wonder what the Empire did with sixty years of the spoils of Galactic war? I know more than do do. A good chunk of it ended up on this ship. The Finalizer. I asked Master Snoke for this ship. But he wasn’t inclined to give it to me. So, a couple of years ago? I took it. The ship is mine. And so is everything in it. Did you know that before I took this ship, the Galactic black market was completely disorganized? A bunch of small time operators, with no supply chain, and nobody in charge. Untalented amateurs. Now? You can get whatever you want, on any First Order ship, or base. And to some extent , along the Outer Rim. For a price. But that’s not enough for me. It’s so small-time. But then again, Captain Solo? So are you.”

“Look, pal, if you’re going to kill us, kill us. But I’m not going to sit here and listen to shit like that coming from a guy like you!”

“Sure you are. Because there’s money in it for you.”

“Money?” Han asked.

Chewbacca coughed into his hand.

He was trying not to laugh.

“Yes. Money. And something better than money. Did the trooper walk you past the hangar. Did you see the black, streamlined YT-2400? She’s my ship. I called her the Hellfire. You know how I could afford a ship like that? I’m sitting on a gold mine. Imperial gold coins by the chestful, guns and coaxium are just the tip of the iceberg. But I have no Galactic network. No connections, outside the Hutt Syndicate. Not like Han Solo does.”

“You want me to go into business with you?”

The masked man kicked a black chest over to Han.

“That’s one of my chests full of Imperial Gold Coins. I also have a First Order Captain’s Medal for you. And one for your co-pilot. And don’t worry that I’ll make you do all the dirty work. The Hellfire is the fastest ship in the Galaxy. She made the Kessel Run in 11.5 parsecs. I had to fry three engines, put in an experimental space-time hyprerdrive, fry another engine, spend a fortune on streamlining and retractable hoods for my guns. Not to mention I almost got myself killed, several times. To do it, I had to fly the Hellfire sideways through a pocket in space-time while at lightspeed. But I did it. I beat you, you old pirate son of a bitch.”

The truth finally hit Han Solo like a ton of bricks.

“Ben? Ben, holy Mother Force, is that you inside that tin can, kid?”

Kylo Ren released the mechanism that loosened his mask, and took it off.

“Who the fuck else would it be?”

Han had about five faces that he normally made.

He cycled through all of them in less than a minute.

“Am I going into business with you, or with the First Order?”

“Me. They’re convenient for my purposes.”

“Who?”

“The First Order. I’ll use them to finish my grandfather’s work. But there’s only one problem with finishing his journey.”

“There’s no money in it.”

“Not a red farkling cent. I’ve already got my command crew loading up the Falcon. They’re loyal to me. They won’t talk.”

“Because they’re afraid of you?”

“No. Because I’m a good commander, and I never ask them to do anything I won’t do. Because they respect me. And because I cut them all in for a piece of the action. You’re my father, Solo, and I don’t want to kill you. So I hope you take the deal.”

“Listen to him talking tough, Chewie. Kid, I never knew you took the family business so seriously. I just thought you wanted to get away from Jedi School.”

“Well, I did that, didn’t I?”

Kylo Ren smirked.

“Yeah, you did. Of course I’ll take the deal.”

“Good.”

Kylo Ren took his glove off, and extended his hand to his father.

He and Han Solo shook on it.

***

“But you can’t leave me, Kiera! I love you! I freed you and your whole family from slavery! I saved your life! I’ve given you everything you ever asked for. Tell me what more you want? Anything? Anything in the Galaxy? It’s yours. Your family. Do they need a new house? More money? Anything.”

“Kylo, I am grateful to you for your mercy and your generosity. In spite of everything you do, you’re still a good man at heart. And you really are some kind of man. But I can’t live like this, anymore! Your secrets, your moods, your nightmares! You’re…a whole bunch of guys, and some of them? They scare me. I hate to break your heart, I do, because you’ve given me everything. And I know I’ll never find another man like you. But that’s part of the problem. I’m an ordinary woman. You don’t need an ordinary woman. You need somebody like you.”

“You’re leaving me, too! Just like in Jedi School! Why? Why do you all leave me?”

“Your love’s too heavy on the human soul, Kylo. I’ll never forget you. Or what you’ve done for me. But I can’t bear it. You’re going to break me. I can feel it.”

Kylo Ren sighed.

“I understand. I’ll take you back to Tattoine. But not before I buy you that garage you always wanted.”

“You don’t have to do that, Kylo.”

“Yes I do. If you have to leave me? I want to make sure you do it with a solid-gold parachute. Will you still be my mechanic?”

“Yeah. And when you come to get some work done? Don’t feel like you need to stay at an inn.”

***

“Kylo, let me in.”

“Go away, Phasma!”

She let herself in.

“Why do you do this to yourself? Every time, you think this one, this girl’s the one. I love her, and she’ll never kick me in the teeth and take me for everything but the clothes on my back. And every time, you’re wrong!”

“Maybe if you had more than two days a week for me, Phasma?”

“That’s more than enough, Kylo. But maybe we’ll make it three, for a while. Unless we try to kill each other. Now, wouldn’t you like to take a bath, and shave, and brush your teeth? You stink of self-pity and Huttese whiskey.”

***

Kylo Ren’s face, behind his mask, was incredulous.

“I’m not following you, Solo. What the fark are you talking about?“

He really wanted a drink.

But he had the mask on.

“Look, Ren, you’re kidding yourself if you think Her Generalship is done with you. And if you think Snoke is going to continue to let me live? It ain’t gonna be money, money, money, and business as usual, forever. She’s going to push from one end and he’s going to push from the other. And eventually? We’re going to be in a tight spot where Leia sends me to get you, and Snoke orders you to get me. So we have to make a plan for it.”

Kylo Ren called to the barmaid.

“Bring me a pitcher of Corellian Ale, a bottle of Huttese whiskey, a packet of cigarillos and a double serving of tonight’s special. And whatever Captain Solo wants.”

In the dark, smoky cantina, Kylo Ren took off his mask, and gloves.

In the three years they had been in business, he had never done that.

Ben had a black eye, and a full beard under it, and his hair fell to his shoulders.

Two of the fingers he ran through his hair were taped together, and all of his knuckles were black and blue.

Even in the dark, Han could see that the kid wasn’t at his best.

But that wasn’t all he could see.

“I know. I need a shave, and a haircut, and I look like hell. You were in the Infantry. You know what the Imperial Dirty Work is like. That, and Kiera left me. They always leave me. Where the fuck are my drinks?”

“Everybody is so full of shit! You don’t look like Vader, you look like me!” Han said, proudly.

“Great.”

“Don’t worry about that girl, kid. You get too serious about these women who are just in it to take what they can get from you. Let it go. She just wasn’t the right one for you.”

“Who is?”

“You’ll know when you meet her. The Thunderbolt will come and knock you right on your ass.”

The food and drinks came, and Kylo hid his face from the barmaid.

“How about a cold pack? He’s hiding his face because it looks like it’s been through a machine.” Han asked the barmaid.

“Yeah. I think I look like both of you. You, and my grandfather.” Ben said, after she left.

Kylo drank half off the picture of beer. He also tossed back the slick, viscous, oily Huttese whiskey, right from the bottle. Then, holding the cold pack against his injured eye with one hand, he started shoveling his food into his mouth with the other.

Han was going to ask him if he always drank like that, but it was obvious that the kid was tired, he was in pain, and he probably dragged himself out of bed just to come to the meeting.

“So what’s your plan, Solo?”

“Well, Kylo Skywalker had to come from somewhere, right? Back on Arkanis, he has to have a father. With a name. And papers. And a story. And who could a guy like Kylo Skywalker, AKA Kylo Ren trust to watch his back other than his own father?“ Han said.

“You want to join the First Order?”

“No. I want to join my son, and make sure he doesn’t die in battle, get assassinated, or drink himself to death.”

There was a commotion at the door, and a tall blonde woman in an Imperial uniform pushed her way over to the table.

“What are you doing in this dive, Kylo?”

“Meeting my business partner, Captain.”

“Business partner!”

Phasma looked from one man to the other.

“Business partner! You are so full of religious nerfshit! That’s your father, isn’t it? Don’t lie to me, Kylo. It’s VERY obvious. Are you trying to impress him? He doesn’t look impressed! He looks worried and sad! Why are you always such a child?” Phasma insisted.

“Don’t talk to me like that, in public, in front of Solo!”

“Solo! What kind of a way is that to talk about your father? If I had treated my father with that kind of disrespect, I would not have lived long enough to learn enough from him to give him a warrior’s death! I didn’t know this meeting was with your own damn father! He would have waited, until you were in presentable shape!“

“Phasma, don’t lecture me. I’ll leave with you when we’re done talking! Business doesn’t wait until you’re at your best.”

“In your case, Kylo, that would be never.”

Han averted the next phase of what he figured would be a long argument.

“Hold up, Vader Junior. How bad is he, sister?”

“My Lord Ren is supposed to be in bed.”

“I thought so. Well kid, think about it. Next month, we’ll iron the whole thing out. Figure out when Han Solo disappears and Papa Kylo turns up.”

Ben pushed the bottle of whiskey across the table.

Han took a drink from it.

Kylo turned to Captain Phasma.

“Sit down. You came for this, Phasma, now you’re in it. But I’m warning you. Don’t try to cross me. Or Solo.”

“Or you’ll kill me? You couldn’t.”

“No, but I could, sister. You want me to kill her, now, kid?” Han asked.

Casually.

“That won’t be necessary. Yet.”

“I wouldn’t cross you, Kylo. I can’t cross your son, General Solo. I owe him the debt of my life and my honor.”

“Oh. I see. And that’s all, huh? OK. I’ll play along. So, you get it, Ren?”

“So far. But then what?” Kylo Ren asked.

“Well, you and Captain Blondie have to keep up appearances and back my new identity until the war is over. It won’t be a farkling picnic for me. But it’ll keep the business going, and it’ll keep me alive. I know you don’t think you’d ever feel guilty about killing me, but trust me, Junior. Once I’m dead? You’ll miss me.”

Kylo finished his picture of beer and banged it on the table.

“You were a terrible father, Solo.”

“You hear that, Captain Blondie? I’m a rotten father. I left his mother. I’m in business with him. I meet up with him, in that mask. I never see his face. He calls me Solo. Every time I see him, I risk my life. His mother won’t see him. His uncle abandoned him. They won’t come near him, because of their fucking precious religion. Not now he’s embraced his inner Vader. But I don’t care. He’s my son. Whatever he does, whoever he is? He’s my son. And I’m with him. That’s right, you spoiled farkling brat! I’m a rotten father.”

“Okay, so you’re not as bad as you used to be. But I’m worse than ever. Worse every day. Let’s face it, Solo. Nobody in this farkling Galaxy gives a damn about me.”

“I do. Why the hell do you think I don’t wanna die? Somebody in this family has to know what the fark is going on. You got some brains, alright, kid, but your mother and your Uncle Luke? Their heads are are full of Jedi nerfshit, and they don’t know what the fark is going on.“

Kylo Ren raised his pitcher.

"I’ll drink to that, Solo.” He said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And in the next chapter, O Best Beloved, Kylo has a chance meeting at a cantina in Jakku with a scavenger that changes the course of Galactic events.


	3. Tainted Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Rey meets the Imperial Flyboy of her dreams, and Kylo meets the Rebel Girl that he's been looking for.

**Jakku**

Standing outside the cantina, freshly bathed, and dressed in clean clothes, Rey pushed a piece of her hair away from her face.

She wasn’t used to wearing it down, but, this evening she was a woman in search of a man’s company.

And not just any man’s.

She was looking for a flyboy.

Or a pirate.

Perhaps a rogue.

Maybe a scoundrel.

They were fun while they lasted, and they promised you the stars, but once they left for them?

They left you with nothing.

Rey had loved a flyboy, once, when she was only 13 or 14 and he must have been close to thirty.

That was the first man who had promised her the stars.

It had hurt to be tossed out into the desert with nothing but the stars he had disappeared into to guide her.

That seemed like a lifetime ago, though, and in the intervening years?

Rey had wised the fuck up.

The men she liked were good for only one thing, and that was fine with her, because Rey didn’t need them for more than a good time, anymore.

She could look after herself, now.

Some people thought she went looking at the cantina because she was looking for a man to give her a handout, but that wasn’t true.

She was just looking for a man’s company.

When she felt like she needed it, she went to find it.

Rey went to the cantina on a scorching hot evening, looking for said company.

And there was one of the biggest men she had ever seen.

Sitting on the barstool, his long legs in a First Order flight suit touched the floor, and his broad shoulders strained at the seams of the officer’s coveralls.

It was cooler in the cantina, the cooling unit was sort of working, but his black pilot’s vest was still folded on the bar beside him.

Standing up, he would have been close to six and a half feet tall.

He was eating a serving bowl of what looked like nerf fried rice with a serving spoon, and there was a pitcher of beer and a pitcher of blue milk sitting beside them.

The big man had shaggy, thick, wavy black hair that looked like he needed a haircut but didn’t care, and a black goatee and moustache.

He was unconventionally handsome man, with dark, ancient eyes, saturnine good looks, and full lips.

He turned to her and smiled.

“Are you hungry for me, or the food, Rebel Girl?” he asked

Rey realised she was carrying the old blast helmet she used to keep the sun off her head and her face.

She slammed it down on the bar and hopped up on the barstool beside him.

“You don’t mince words, do you, Flyboy?”

He smirked, and shrugged a little.

“I like hungry girls.”

He looked at her, closely.

“You aren’t much more than a girl, are you? Are you even old enough for me to talk to you?”

“I am 18. I have been old enough to talk to you for two years, flyboy. And you don’t exactly look like an old man.”

“I’m 28.”

“See? You’re not even thirty, yet. And I’ve been on my own in the world since I was 14, so nobody’s going to come in with a blaster and blow you off the barstool for talking to me.”

Rey was playing it cool, but she really was hungry.

The sight and smell of real food made her stomach growl.

“You’re a scavenger and you live on portions older than both of us, huh?”

“So?”

“So, let me get you some real food. I don’t feel right, just sitting in front of you, eating like a Wookiee.”

The big Flyboy nodded to the Rodian behind the bar, and he soon brought Rey a human sized portion of food, milk, and beer.

“You do eat like a Wookiee.” She told him.

After she cleaned her plate and gulped the milk.

“So do you, Rebel Girl.”

“I have a name. It’s Rey.”

“Nice to meet you, Rey. I’m Kylo.”

He didn’t ask her ‘Rey What?’

And didn’t tell her his last name.

He didn’t pry, he wasn’t pushy, and he wasn’t a lying cocky prick.

Rey decided she was going home with this one.

Or at least out back.

She was casually looking in the area of his blaster belt when she saw it wasn’t a blaster riding on his slim hip.

“Is that a lightsaber, on your blaster belt?”

“Don’t touch it.”

“I wasn’t. Where did you get a lightsaber?”

“I made it. Before it burned, I was at the Jedi Temple.”

“You’re no Jedi, though. Weren’t you any good at it?”

He laughed.

“I was too good. I scared the fuck out of everybody. But I got kicked out for breaking my vow of chastity. Several times. And… I had a difference of religious opinion with Master Luke.”

He wasn’t bragging.

Or trying to get sympathy.

It was just what he did.

“I wish I could have gone.”

“No, you don’t. They take all the joy out of your natural Force abilities.”

“How did you know I had any?”

“I can feel it. I could feel it when you came into the cantina. It’s OK. I won’t tell anyone you’re passing for normal. You don’t deserve to end up a slave to the Jedi, or the Sith. Like me.”

He grimaced, a smile without mirth.

“They own me now. Body and soul. Oh, I was told a lot of pretty lies. But the horrible reality is that I belong to them, and I’m stuck doing the Imperial dirty work, until I either die, or find an out.”

“Have you got any ideas?”

“Lots of them. I have a plan, too. Still hungry?”

“Yes.”

“Order some more. Whatever you want.”

***

They stayed until the cantina closed.

He wasn’t staying at the cantina where he was sure to get robbed; Kylo was smart enough to have hired a flat.

He didn’t give her a lot of tired cliches, or try to be funny, or gloat because he knew she was coming with him.

They just walked a block or two to the flat.

And it was nice that he held her hand.

When they were at the door to the flat, though, right after Kylo unlocked it?

He leaned over and whispered in her ear.

“Are you still hungry, Little Rebel Girl?”

His deep voice rumbled up from his chest in a growl of naked, shameless desire.

Rey knew there was a fire in her, a fire that even the baddest of bad men sometimes shrunk from, and few could dim.

None of them had put it out, yet.

That, however, was the voice of the man who could burn her down.

Kylo opened the door.

He waited for her to go in, first.

Rey felt just a little scared, all the sudden.

Like she was walking into the lair of a monster who was going to keep her prisoner for a hundred years.

Or maybe just devour her.

She went, anyway.

Because she had been searching the stars for him for what seemed like forever.

And finally?

Had she found the Beast?

***

There wasn’t any talking.

Good, because Rey didn’t feel like talking.

Hungry people don’t want to talk.

They want to feast.

Kylo locked the door behind them and then she was against the wall and he was kissing her.

Then he was taking off his shirt and throwing it aside.

Rey started unwinding her clothes, and when they were naked, Kylo kissed her again, and they both stumbled over something in the dark.

Rey fell against the wall and found the light.

Kylo had fallen over the arm of an ancient, overstuffed sofa.

She laughed.

And he laughed, too, and reached out for her with his long arms, pulling her onto the old couch with him.

Kylo rolled her over so he was on top of her, and it felt good, his long, heavy body stretched over hers.

“Are you clean? Do you have an implant? I’ll know if you’re lying, Rebel Girl.”

“I have an implant. And I’m clean, alright. Because I don’t let flyboys like you ride me, bareback.”

“But you’re going to let me do it, aren’t you? Why?”

He was snarling at her, again, and his dark, ancient eyes were full of hellfire.

“Because I’d know if you were lying.”

Kylo looked at her, and laughed, and while he was still laughing, he put his hand between their bodies, and got his cock into her.

Rey gasped.

Kylo was looking down at her, intently.

“You’re a very hungry Little Rebel Girl, aren’t you? Always going into strange rooms with strange men who disappoint you, in the end. It’s a good thing for you I’m not a man. I’m a monster.”

And some wild spirit seemed to possess this man who said he was a monster because he started riding her hard, so hard that the sofa scraped across the floor a little with his every thrust.

Like he was trying to break through the tight knot of her frustration; like he understood she didn’t want it nicely; it had been too long for nicely.

She wanted it hard, she needed to come hard, and Kylo knew what she wanted.

He gave it to her hard, with her swearing through gritted teeth and him grunting and the couch scraping, and when she did come, it was both hard and fast, like a punch in the guts, except it was pleasure that spread through her belly, and not pain.

A sharp cry escaped her, and her body relaxed into the cushions.

Kylo pulled out of her, though he hadn’t come, yet, and he put her legs around his shoulders.

Hungry people don’t ask.

They feast.

The monster was full of red hellfire, and he breathed it from his mouth into her body, setting her aflame.

From some distant place of pleasure, Rey heard herself screaming for Kylo to, stop, but he wouldn’t, and just at the moment she broke into another orgasm, he was inside her again.

She pounded on his broad back, howling.

“No, no, no, it’s too much! It’s too good!”

Nonsense words that she hoped he wouldn’t listen to, that Kylo would listen to the way she was holding him tight with her arms and her legs around him.

That’s what he listened to.

The frequency of the snarls and grunts coming from this wild raging bull of a man rampaging astride her came closer together, and louder. It wasn’t so much that he waited for her to come again, because she hadn’t stopped coming, it was more that he had to.

Kylo pounded his fist on the arm of the sofa behind her, and arched his head and his chest back, and he bellowed, wordlessly.

The couch moved six inches, Rey had another of those gut punch orgasms and Kylo came his lot, thunderously.

He rolled off her, onto the floor, panting, his strong, smooth, milk-white body beaded all over with sweat.

He wasn’t very hairy, but he was still quite a man.

“You made me fucking work for that, you little monster! You’re an animal, Rebel Girl!”

He sat up, grinning, goofily.

“After I catch my breath, we’ll go find the bed.”

***

Around four in the morning, Rey slid out from under Kylo’s arm, and went to the bedroom door.

She hated to leave the big man in the big bed.

They had made love twice more before Kylo fell asleep, majestically snoring.

Those two times, he had taken his time, and given her everything she wanted, everything she needed and for the first time in her hungry life she felt full and well-fucked and satisfied.

She had slept, too.

Rey looked back at Kylo and felt sad and wistful and sorry.

Emotions she hadn’t connected with leaving a man’s room for a long time.

Rey knew that Kylo was the best she’d ever had and he was probably the best she would ever have, and every other man from here on out would just be the rest.

She had taken the monster’s red hellfire, even into her womb, and it would burn her in flesh, forever.

Rey shook that thought off.

But she liked Kylo, she really did, and whether he was rude in the morning, or polite and gentlemanly?

Goodbye would hurt, this time.

And Rey didn’t have a place in her life for that.

She was almost to the bedroom door when he room filled with light.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?”

He moved fast, for such a big man; Kylo was blocking the door.

“Don’t be polite, Kylo. I know how this works. I know you’ll want me to leave in the morning, so I’ll just go now.”

She saw anger in his eyes.

“Did I fuck you like I wanted you to leave me?” he demanded.

“You all leave me. Whether it’s two days or two weeks, you all fly away, and even if you do come back, you never come back to me.” She retorted.

Rey knew she sounded hard and tough, and she was making it sound like she fucked everybody, like she’d had hundreds of men.

Even though she didn’t.

And she hadn’t.

But getting hard and being tough was the way she knew to survive.

“So that’s what happened to you. You fell in love with some cheap, two-bit flyboy who promised you the stars and left you in the sand to starve. Some people can be so cruel, when you’re weak, and you’re helpless. Trust me. I know.”

Rey felt wounded.

Stabbed through like he had ignited his lightsaber in her guts.

Kylo had seen right through her.

“But you didn’t let him break you, did you, Rebel Girl?”

“No. I’ll never let anyone break me.”

“Me neither. I’m tough as leather, diamond-hard and just as rare. And I am going to be on Jakku for at least two weeks. So are you. Unless you lied about being alone in the world.” He told her.

“I didn’t.”

“Then stay with me. And come back to bed.”

He held out his hand to her.

He was angry that she wanted to leave him; he was used to people leaving him, but he didn’t like it.

How bad could it be?

Maybe he really was different.

He seemed to be

Rey took his hand, and Kylo picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

“Trying to sneak out on me?”

She laughed when he put her back in the bed.

“No! I thought you would throw me out in the morning. I have my pride, you know.”

“Me? Throw you out? A goofy-looking pirate, a son of a pirate, like me?”

“You’re not goofy looking.”

“You need your eyes fixed. I am a big, ugly, weird goof. I know me better than you do. And everybody told me so, for the first two decades of my life.”

“You are not. But I know how you feel. They used to make fun of me because I wore old clothes and my parents left me.”

“They didn’t die? They just left you? I won’t leave you, Rey. Well, not forever. I’ll come back.”

“You just met me, Kylo.”

“Yeah, well, I’m one of those idiots you hear about who’s a sucker for a tough girl who needs an even break. Besides, the Force is strong with you. Like it is with me. That binds people like us together. And it can happen as soon as we meet.”

Rey ventured a question.

“Do you need a good scavenger, Kylo?”

“Not on this trip. I’m not here for scrap. But next time? Yeah, I’ll need somebody who knows what’s garbage and what’s good. I’m not going to lie to you, Rey. I’m not the good guy. But I’m loyal, and my word is good as Beskar steel. I promise, Rey. I swear, by my true Master in the Force. I won’t leave you. You’re going to think I’m a big nerfshitter, now, but I’ve been looking for you for a long time. I just didn’t know who you were, or where you were. Now that I’ve found you? I’m not going to just leave you in the desert to rot.”

Rey was surprised by the sudden intensity of Kylo’s promise.

_Somebody he loves, somebody he trusted betrayed him._

_One of his own parents, maybe._

_This man understands my pain, because he shares it._

And her insight.

Maybe it was the Force.

Maybe it had been, all these years.

“And I promise I will never betray you, Kylo.”

“I believe you. I’ll tell you what, so you know I’m not just a nerfshitter? I’ll tell you my last name, too. Skywalker. I’m an Arkanian. My father was an Imperial pilot, and he is a pirate a smuggler and a mercenary. I never meant to follow in the Old Man’s footsteps. But I have. Do you know your last name?”

“No.”

“Then I’ll have to help you find one.”

“Wait? You’re Kylo Skywalker? The Arkanian? You’re really that Kylo Skywalker?” Rey asked.

Skywalker, Rey knew, a was pretty common name, out on the Outer Rim, especially on Arkanis and Tattoine.

“Whatever you’ve heard about me? It’s probably true.”

Kylo Skywalker.

One of the founders of the reinvigorated Galactic Black Market.

Rey blushed, a little.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing. I believe you, Kylo. Can you turn the light out? I’m very tired.”

Kylo yawned.

“Me too. But I won’t be, in the morning.”

They both fell asleep, and slept for a long time.

***

Kylo was gone for three months, total.

He sent her letters, to the trading post.

She sent him letters, to a post office in a small village on Tattoine, the closest town to the land he owned and lived on.

Rey started to worry when two weeks went by with no letter.

She got a message, about him at the Trading Post.

They told her the message came at the same time every day.

“This is Captain Artemis Skywalker, calling for Rey the Rebel Girl. I got a message for you, from Kylo Skywalker.”

The voice was a man’s, tough, streetwise, and staccato, like the comment made by a bolt of plasma shooting out of the business end of a blaster.

“This is Rey.”

“You’re not so easy to find, kid. When do you eat, every couple of days? Never mind. Kylo wired you you some money. If that prick at the trading post doesn’t give it to you, you tell me, now. I’ll be there in a few hours, and I’m shooting first, not asking any questions later and burying him in the desert. And if he’s not dead, yet? Tough.”

“I got the money, I’m giving it to her, Captain.”

“You better. Now shut the fuck up. About all of this. Or I’ll come and shut you up. Anyway, Rey? Kylo’s laid up. He got into some trouble on his day job doing the grunt work for the new Empire. He broke a couple of his ribs and got a lung infection. He’s getting better, though. He’ll see you in two weeks. If you run out of dough, call back. From the cantina. The Rodian knows the frequency. Don’t worry about Kylo. He’s a tough kid. He’ll be fine.”

“What did the doctors say? What about the medical droids?”

“Kylo doesn’t like doctors. He never did. I’m taking care of him. Me, and this Wookiee I know. It’s alright, my Wookiee friend knows a lot about simple healing. And we have lots of bacta caspsules. You’ll see him in two weeks, at the trading post. He wants you to rent the usual room. And if you have money left over? Keep it. Over and out.”

Rey suspected she wasn’t being told everything.

But, in two weeks time, when Rey went to trade her loot for food?

Kylo was waiting for her.

In his black First Order pilot’s flight suit, with his Captain’s medallion on his breast pocket, in blaster belt he wore a lightsaber and a blaster on.

And his black Imperial jackboots were so shiny that she could see her face in them.

The man knew he looked better than a whole case of portions.

“Come here, Rebel Girl.”

Kylo called her Rebel Girl because when he met her, she still had her X-Wing helmet.

She had sold it, since.

It had reminded her of him.

“Kylo! You came back! How did you get hurt?”

“Lets go back to the flat. And I’ll tell you.”

The funny thing was?

He did.

“I’m going to tell you the truth, Rey. I’m not Kylo Skywalker all the time. I have another life. My real name is Ben Solo. That old pirate you talked to is my father, but he’s Han Solo. He’s not in the First Order. He’s just trying to be a good father. He’s a little late, but late is better than never. My mother, who’s just trying is Princess Leia Organa. We haven’t spoken since the disaster that was my 21st birthday party. She’s a Skywalker, too, the daughter and true heir of Darth Vader. She used my Uncle Luke as a bullet to fire into the heart of the Empire, resulting in the death and overthrowing of her father, and then she took over the Galaxy. He was very proud. My grandfather is my true Master, in the Force. As both Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker. I have trained to be a Jedi, and a Sith, but in my heart I am something else. I follow the Grey Path. But I am a slave to the First Order, and the Sith. I am of the Knights of Ren. I am their leader. Kylo Ren, Lord Vader.”

“Holy Mother Force, Kylo! You are Kylo Ren?”

“Yeah. I am the man in the black mask. And whatever you heard about me? It’s probably true. I was wounded in battle. Like I told you, I’m the guy who does the Imperial Dirty Work. But, just like my grandfather, who was Anakin Skywalker, and became Darth Vader, only to become Anakin Skywalker, again? Someday, when my journey is complete and the war is over? I will be Ben Solo, all the time, again. But no one here can know that Kylo Ren and Ben Solo are the same man. You promised not to betray me, Rey. I need you. And Kylo Ren needs you.”

“I’ll keep it. But what would you both need me for?”

“Besides the obvious?”

Rey blushed.

“Yes, Kylo. Besides that.”

“You’re going to help me destroy the Old Order, Rebel Girl. All of it. Both sides. Forever.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which all our characters have a fateful meeting on Starkiller Base. And you have to read the chapter to see hwo things change, and how much they stay the same.


	4. I Can't Reach You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Starkiller Base does indeed get blown to smithereens, which, like the reunion of our star-crossed lovers, becomes both a good and a bad thing. Also in which we meet Captain Artemis Skywalker, a rogue, a mercenary, and a scoundrel.

**I CAN’T REACH YOU**

**"Once I caught a glimpse/Of your unguarded, untouched heart/Our fingertips touched and then/My mind tore us apart."**

_I Can’t Reach You_ , The Who, from _The Who Sell Out,_ 1966\. Lyrics by Pete Townshend

“Where am I?”

_It’s obvious where I am. I’m alone in an interrogation room with a hideous monster, a man so hideous and inhuman, he has to wear a mask._

“You are my guest.”

“Where are the others?”

_Dead, I’ll bet._

“You mean the murderers, traitors and thieves you call friends? I have no idea. You still want to kill me?”

_He sounds happy about it._

_Why is he doing this to me?_

“That’s what happens when you’re being hunted by a creature in a mask.”

_There is something about him; something that makes me feel like…my life has been a long journey, leading to this room._

_This day._

_This…?_

_Fate?_

_I don’t want this to be my fate._

_I don’t want him to be my fate._

He took his mask off.

And stood up.

Mocking her with the fact that he was not a monster.

In Rey’s mind, she was screaming.

_Oh no!_

_It was him_.

The Demon Lover, both the Dark Prince whose dusky, saturnine good looks might waylay you in the deepest part of the forest and the Great Beast. The Great God Pan, himself, who would ravish you with his hungry mouth and his big stiff prick after taking you far far far from the path, so far from the path that you might never ever ever want to go back again. This was Man in the Black Mask, her Imperial Lord and Master, in his shiny black jackboots you could see your face in. He was the man that she had waited for on Jakku. The man from the most forbidden of her fantasies the most shameful of her secret dreams.

She knew him.

She had always known him.

Rey wondered if she looked frightened.

She was.

But not of him.

“You think you came for your new friends. But you came to find me, again. Forget about them. They’re strangers to you. Tell me about the droids.”

And then she was talking.

Giving him some kind of answer.

Talking.

Kylo Ren was still talking.

_We’re alone in this room._

_He could do anything, and I wouldn’t be able to stop him._

_Why should I?_

Oh no.

There it was.

The thought she didn’t want to be having.

She continued to resist his attempts to get information out of her, but it was her thoughts that disturbed her.

_Why am I like this?_

Rey tried, but she couldn’t stop these thoughts.

They were as unwelcome as a bizarre sexual dream; the kind where you are doing things you would never do, with people who’s faces keep changing, and you wake up wondering what your body was thinking when you enjoyed anything so weird.

_He’s a big man. He has to be almost as tall and burly as Darth fucking Vader. And under that black outifit? Unlike Vader, he is a whole man. Hung like a stallion._

She closed her eyes, to make them go.

These thoughts.

She was beginning to be really afraid.

“…I can take what I want.”

And he did.

He took her thoughts right from her mind.

He took her loneliness, and her desperation.

She tried to hide her deepest secrets from him.

But he knew them.

He knew everything about her.

Don’t let him know about your dreams.

Don’t let him know what you were thinking about him.

“And Han Solo? You feel like he’s the father you never had? He would have disappointed you.”

“Get out of my head!” Rey sneered.

_I waited for you and I waited for you, and I was so glad when I found you. Why do you have to be this man?_

“I’m only one man. The man who loves you. You waited for me for a long, long, long time. In your fear. And you loneliness. But I’ve been looking for you for a long, long, long time. I knew it was you, Rebel Girl. I knew the minute I saw you. Just give me the information. I’ll unlock you from this device, and we can begin our part of the journey.”

And then?

Though she had been waiting so long to hear those words?

Rey began to resist him.

“I’m not giving you anything.”

“We’ll see.”

_His ring._

_His wedding ring._

_He’s still wearing it._

Rey bit her lip.

“Ben? Kylo? Stop. Just stop.”

“Stop? Stop what?”

“Whatever this is! Acting like we’re strangers. Strapping me to a gurney. I’m not telling you shit, and you know it!”

“I feel like we are.”

“Are what?”

“Strangers! I come home to find my house dark and empty, and my wife gone, without so much as a note! I look for you all over the Galaxy, and half a year goes by and you and the Old Man and FN2187 turn up with the Resistance to sabotage me! Like we are strangers! I told you who I was and what I did, and you were alright with it for nearly two years. Then, all the sudden, you couldn’t live with it? What happened?”

“You made it sound like you were just some minor villain, and then I found out just who and what you are! I couldn’t stay, after that! Now that I see you in person? It’s worse! You told me you were enslaved by Snoke. Well, are you really going to let him have me? Enslave me, torture me, take my soul? Will you let him do to me what he’s done to you?”

Kylo Ren freed Rey from her restraints.

“No. Never. If I have to, I’ll throw us both off the catwalk, into the magickal heart of Ilum. We can take our chances with space and time. At least we’ll be together.”

He seemed so desperate, so anguished, and yet so hopefully mystical that she couldn’t deny this was her Kylo, her Ben.

The man who believed that the stars belonged to him, and if you knew him long enough, then you started to believe it, too.

_Rey, this isn’t some stranger in a mask, some anonymous Sith badguy. This is your husband. The man who pulled you out of a hole in the desert, gave you everything you have and taught you everything you know._

“Kylo, I’m still wearing my ring, too. It’s on the end of this chain. We don’t have to die to be together. And if we leapt into the planet’s core we wouldn’t take a mystical journey to freedom. We’d just die. You don’t have to either die, or give me to Snoke.”

“I don’t see how else I can get around it. Eventually. But I don’t have to take you to Snoke, right now. I can let you go. I can leave you with a guard you can use the Jedi mind trick on, and you can escape. For now. Later, I’ll find you, and smuggle you onto the Finalizer. I can bluff him, for awhile. Tell him you’re my apprentice. That you’re not ready to meet him.”

“What do I have to do, for these favors?” Rey fairly panted.

Those intensely sexual thoughts were plaguing her, again.

“Promise me that I will see you, again.” Kylo said.

“That’s all?”

She was disappointed.

Worse?

He was distracted.

He turned away from her, for some reason.

Thinking, probably.

“I really don’t think it would kill us. And it would be a release…” he muttered, dreamily.

There he went, off on one of his brooding, mystical flights of fantasy.

Rey knew they could last for hours, or days, and they had neither.

She fiddled with her clothes, so that he could see her wedding ring, on the chain.

However, she had to bare her breasts so he could see it.

“Kylo?”

He turned around.

“See? I’m still wearing my ring. Are you sure, Lord Vader, that there’s _nothing_ else I have to do to gain your favor?”

He made that same face his father did when Han couldn’t believe his luck.

Kylo closed the blast shield on the door of the interrogation room.

“My Master told me about horny rebel sluts like you.”

“Really? What did Old Snoke have to say?”

“The Dark Side will twist you, boy. While you’re young and good looking, get all the women you can. Especially those Rebel Girls who like their men tall, dark and Imperial. I think, for once? It was good advice.”

He took off his cape, laid it on the floor, and lifted Rey off the gurney.

She put her arms around his neck.

“What did Master Luke say?”

“I don’t know. Something about chastity. I think I was distracted, at the time by the girl behind me thinking about how with lips like mine, I must give great head. I didn’t buy you these cheap leggings. Let’s do something about them.”

Kylo Ren got down on the floor with his wife, and ripped her leggings open at the seam between her legs.

Rey gasped.

“Be gentle with me, my Lord!”

“Hah! Not likely, Rebel scum! I know just the way you like it, my little wife, and it’s not gently! I’m not even going to take off my shiny black jackboots.”

“Can’t you take off your shirts, too? Please, Ben?”

“Whatever the lady desires. But promise me. No matter what? I will see you, again?”

“Yes. I promise.”

Kylo Ren took off his surcoat, his shirt, and his undershirt, talking to her, earnestly, as he undressed.

“Rey? Listen to me. Keep this in mind, while we make love. The power that reaches for you, the old Jedi Order? It is as totalitarian, as corrupt as the Sith who have enslaved me. But in a totalitarian state, sex is an act of rebellion. And love is revolutionary. Let me liberate you.”

He brought his mouth down on hers, hard and she pulled his big body down on hers, just as hard, tumbling them over and over on the floor.

Rey made a fist of her hand in his thick, dark hair and kissed him back, sucking on his tongue as he thrust it lewdly in and out of her mouth.

She threw her leg around him, impatiently rubbing her sex against his, still imprisoned in his pants.

He got up off of her, and Rey went for the high waisted pants’ button fly, and released a purple-headed beast from the big man’s pants.

Rey put her foot in the middle of his chest.

“Hold on, big man. You’re going to have to lick it before you stick it.” She told him.

“Whatever the lady desires…”

***

Rey knew she must have dozed off, because she woke up.

His Lordship was still asleep.

Rey woke him, gently.

“Ben? Kylo? Wake up.”

“Holy mother Force! You knocked me out! Where did you get that white Jedi nun suit, and when will you wear it, again?” Kylo Ren gasped.

“Maybe that was it. Maybe it was your uniform. You’re a warlord, and a killer, but you look too damn good in that farkling uniform! I should never have let you do that, Ben! Why did you encourage me?”

“Because I’m the badguy, Rebel Girl. The most Imperial Man in the Galaxy. That’s why you married me, remember?”

Rey sat up.

“That’s not the only reason I married you! I had no idea you really were the most Imperial Man in the Galaxy! And look what you did to my clothes! My underwear is in pieces all over the floor and you ripped the hell out of my leggings. I didn’t bring another pair.”

“I’ll stash you in my quarters and get you a new pair. Ours are much better. And there’s a hole in your boot. I’ll get you a new pair.”

They got to their feet, and Kylo put his shirt and surcoat back on. Here. Wrap yourself in my cape. And try to look like you’re afraid of me, while I’m marching you down the corridors.”

“I am a little afraid, Ben. First you had me strapped down, and you were giving me the third degree like we were strangers. You went through all your moods, at once. Raging Wookie, Brooding Mystic, Swashbuckling Scoundrel and Sexual Death Star. That’s a lot of moods in less than an hour. Even for you.”

***

Kylo locked Rey in while he went to get her another pair of leggings.

Also another pair of underwear.

He had torn those to shreds, too.

Kylo returned with two unopened packages.

Rey was still in his bed.

“You’re still here? I must have outdone myself. That’s the bathroom. That door. You can go in there and wash up. And these are unopened. The boyshorts have a First Order logo on them, but the desert leggings don’t.”

Rey picked up the unmarked desert boots.

“You can just give these out?”

“I’m Kylo Ren. I’m not beholden to anyone but Snoke. I can pretty much do whatever the fuck I want, when I’m not under his orders.”

“He gave you that much power?”

“No. I took it.”

“How?”

“When you get a reputation for making those who cross you walk a plank into space, people start to take you seriously. Especially these Old Imperials. Bloodthirsty, backstabbing, torture-happy sons of bitches. But you can put your new clothes on, later. Take the rest of those clothes off. You’re too hot to fuck with clothes on, Rebel Girl.”

He started to undress, completely.

“Again? Right now?” Rey asked.

She was trying not to sound excited about it.

Even though she was.

“I don’t know when or if I’ll ever see you again. I can’t waste this opportunity.”

“But we’re here to blow this place up!” Rey protested.

She still got undressed.

In a hurry.

Kylo got back into bed.

“Then I’ll die hard. And we’ll go together. Nothing can distract me from how much I want you. And I can’t think of a better way to leave this rotten world.”

***

“Where the hell is Rey?” Finn insisted.

Chewie expressed his opinion on exactly where Rey was, and what was taking her so long.

“So? If I was him, I would. Twice.” Han defended his son.

He turned to Finn.

“It’s a family problem. You stay here. Chewie, detonate the explosive in fifteen minutes. Even if I’m not back.”

***

Han crept through the two-room quarters after he got the guard to let him in.

Without looking, he reached around the doorless entryway to the bedroom, grabbed the kid’s lightsaber, jimmied the housing open and ripped a bunch of wires out.

Then he put it back.

“Hey, loverboy. Wake up and put your pants on. This place blows up in about a minute.”

The kid stopped snoring with a snort.

“What? Son of a bitch!”

Sure enough, he called for the lightsaber.

Rey skittered past him, doing up her belts.

Han stood in the doorway.

“You might as well point your dick at me, kiddo. At least you could piss down my leg. I don’t trust you, so I disabled your laser sword.”

The whole base was rocked by a massive explosion.

“You want to get dressed, or are you leaving like that?”

“I’m not leaving with you, Solo!”

“But you’re leaving. Unless you don’t like breathing.”

Ben swore.

He pushed a button on the wall.

“ZX4219? Get the crew together, get on the shuttle and rendezvous with the Finalizer. Now.”

“But, my Chieftain…”

“Zara. The Rebels are blowing the place up. Just do it!”

He pushed another button.

“Where are you, Chief? I don’t think that was the last explosion! We need to get the fark out of here!”

“I’ll be there, soon, Lieutenant. I need to locate Captain Skywalker. The Imperial Old Man is missing. Keep the engine running. Leave without me if you need to. That’s an order. Over and out.”

Kylo Ren pulled on his clothes.

Rey, now dressed, slipped past him, and he slipped the restraints onto her again.

“Take her. Take her and get out of here. Take her home. Not back to the Resistance base. Home. I gave you an out and I’m letting you go. Take her.”

His voice trembled.

The argument continued outside, with Ben carrying Rey out onto a catwalk and Han following him.

“Come with us, Ben. We miss you. Come home.”

“I can’t. It’s too late for me.”

“It’s not! Why do you want to stay? For Snoke? Do you think he’ll ever let you have power? He’s using you.”

“I intend to take it.”

“Sure. He’ll let you do that, too.”

Kylo swore.

He put Rey over his shoulder, and took off his mask, and dropped it.

She screamed.

“Don’t, Kylo! Don’t drop me!”

He held her close again, and scowled at his father.

“Look at me, Solo! Look into my eyes! It’s too late for me, but he wants Rey. I can’t let him have Rey. I’ll throw us both into this pit, rather than let him have her!”

“You won’t come with me?”

“No.”

“Fine. Then I’m staying with you. Finn? Come and get Rey. Take her back to the ship.”

Han took Rey from Kylo’s arms.

Finn ran down the catwalk, and took Rey from Han’s arms, and Han handed Finn the keys to the binders.

“Take Rey to the ship. Tell the General that I’m not joining the badguys. I’m staying to look after our son.”

Rey was fighting to get free, and yelling, but Finn ran with her, panting all the way.

“What are you talking about, Solo?”

“I’m staying. For good, now. Until it’s over. You intend to take power from Snoke? You’ll have to kill him. I’ll help. But right now? We should be thinking about escaping. Chewie is going to blow this pop stand sky high.”

“Sure. That little fart of an bomb you set off a few minutes ago…”

A terrible explosion rocked the catwalk, and both men had to hang on.

“Shit! That’s it! That’s done it! You really are going to blow the place to hell, with you and me both still on it! That was your last farkling mistake, Solo.”

“What are you gonna do, Vader Junior? Shove me over the side? If you try to throw me over? We both go. I’ve been frozen in carbonite. I can take it. What about you?” Han told him.

“You know how many old bastards like you I’ve killed?”

“None. Nobody’s as big a bastard as me. But you’re getting there, kid.”

The catwalk buckled.

“I have my blaster in my boot!”

“I’m wearing two blast proof vests.”

Kylo Ren jammed his mask back on, pushed a button on the catwalk, and both men indeed made a run for it.

“What am I going to tell Snoke?”

“Nothing, if you’re dead. If you live? We’ll think of something. Let’s find your TIE Fighter, and get the fark out of here.”

***

Kylo and Han were in the TIE Fighter when Kylo saw Rey standing with Finn, among the trees.

They hugged, and Finn kissed her.

“Did that traitor just touch Rey’s ass?” Kylo snapped.

“What the fark does he think he’s doing?” Han insisted.

“Son of a bitch! That traitorous farkling son of a bitch! Gimme that lightsaber!”

Han handed it to him.

“Don’t kill him. Just put him in a bacta tank, for awhile.”

Kylo took his lightsaber back from Han, opened the housing and fiddled with the wires.

“I’ll break every bone in his body!”

He hurled himself out of the hatch at the top.

“Yeah, I shouldn’t have given him the laser sword.” Han muttered.

He scrambled after him.

***

“Traitor!” Kylo screamed.

He ignited his lightsaber, and ripped it up the back of FN2187’s back, and then punched him in the face.

Finn collapsed.

Rey ignited Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber.

“You Sith bastard! All I did was hug him!”

“Sure, I believe that! I saw you kiss him, and he had his hands on you, too! Let’s see if anyone wants to kiss you but me, after I burn a scar into your pretty face, you faithless Rebel whore!”

They battled back and forth, and at first, Kylo attacked Rey with terrible anger.

That anger began to fade when he realized Rey wasn’t fighting to defend herself, or to wound him.

She was trying to kill him.

He switched to a defensive fight.

But Rey’s fury only grew.

“Stop! You don’t know what you’re doing! You can’t beat me. I still have much to teach you.” he shouted.

“You showed me enough! I will kill you!” Rey howled.

They were at crossed sabres.

“Rey, this is madness! I don’t want to hurt you, stop fighting me! Go home, Rey. Not back to the Resistance. They’re no better than the First Order. Go back to our home. I’ll come to see you, there. Like I used to. Nothing is different. I still love you. Nothing has changed.”

“I’ve changed!”

She kept driving at him, and Kylo kept falling back.

He wouldn’t hurt her.

Even if it meant losing a hand.

But when he saw his grandfather’s lightsaber coming for his head?

He had the opportunity to cut Rey’s hand off, lightsaber and all.

He didn’t take it.

He only raised his lightsaber to deflect the blow as he felt Anakin’s lightsaber sear the flesh of his face, neck and chest.

Kylo fell back in the snow, and his lightsaber bounced away from him.

Rey held Anakin’s saber over her head, in both hands, like an axe.

It was a crude move, but it would kill him.

Kylo scuttled back.

“Kill me quickly. If it is the will of the Force, I accept it. I forgive you.” He told her.

“Then let the will of the Force be done!” she shouted.

“Whoa! Screw the will of the Force! Rey! Stop! Are you crazy?”

Han Solo had grabbed Kylo’s lightsaber, and he stood in front of his son, and blocked Rey’s killing blow.

The sabres sparked together.

“He’s not your son or my husband anymore!”

“Nerfshit! Fucking Jedi nerfshit at that! Ben, Kylo, whatever he calls himself, he’s still the same man! He was Kylo Ren the whole time you knew him. I knew it, did I try to kill him? His mother knows it, does she want him dead? Will of the Force, my ass! It’s the will of you being pissed off!”

“But he hurt Finn!”

“Finn shouldn’t have been trying to kiss his commanding officer’s wife. Get Finn back on the ship, and back to D’Qar.”

Rey suddenly realized what she had almost done.

She extinguished her lightsaber, and Han extinguished Kylo’s lightsaber.

Rey pushed past Han, and knelt beside Kylo Ren.

“Did you burn his face off? I can’t look.” Han said.

“Kylo! Your face! You killed Finn, and I destroyed your face!”

Han swore.

“Alright. I’ll look.”

Han knelt down beside Ben, too.

“Did Rey burn my face off?”

“Nah. She missed your eye, and your nose. You’ll have a scar on your face and your neck, maybe down to your chest. But you’re bleeding like a stuck nerf. That’s no good.’

“You see, Rey? I’ll have a scar. I have many. Maybe I didn’t kill your traitor buddy. I just fixed it so he won’t be feeling you up under the farkling moonlight, for awhile.”

“But I can’t just leave you here, bleeding in the snow!”

“I’m not alone. Solo’s with me. Just go, Rey. Please. I don’t want Snoke to get you.”

“You’re a no good son of a bitch, Kylo Skywalker, Ben Solo! A Sith warlord and a mercenary, not to mention a killer, a thief, and a pirate! But other than the Sith warlord part, that’s the man I married, for better or for worse. There’s still good in you, I know. And I’m going to fight for it. I’ll free you from the Dark Side, or kill you, trying.” Rey vowed.

“Aren’t you supposed to die trying?”

“Me? Fark no! You’re the Sith!”

“I’m not a Sith, Rey. I’m a slave to the Sith. A prisoner of the black sleep of the Dark Side. They did the same thing to me as your friend, FN2187. Sought me out when I was a child. Stole me from my family. Told me a bunch of pretty lies, only to enslave me with torture and brainwashing to a destiny I never asked for that I don’t really understand. I’m glad you believe there’s good in me. That I might be free. I only want to live long enough to see the past die, to watch it burn, knowing that I set the fire, before the flames consume me.”

“That’s pretty goddamn dark, kid.”

“You had the chance to save me, Solo. You blew it.”

“I’m taking another chance, now.”

Rey wiped the tears from her eyes and stood up.

“I can save you from that fate, Kylo. Because I love you. And if I’m not as strong in the Force as you are? I’ll learn.”

She ran for the Falcon.

Kylo got his breath as Han helped him to his feet.

“It burns! My face, and my neck, and my chest! I feel like I’m on fire! I hate lightsaber wounds! They never stop burning!” Ben exclaimed.

Han got some snow, and packed it down Kylo’s tunic, then against his face.

“More snow?” he asked.

“No. That helped. She’s safe. From Snoke. But you and me, Solo? We might be farkled. For one thing? I can’t fly like this.”

“I can fly a TIE. I was an Imperial pilot, remember?”

They watched the Falcon go.

Kylo touched his father’s face.

“Don’t be scared. I’m using the Force to make your hair and beard grow out. No more wigs and false beards.”

“Sounds good. And I wasn’t around, before because I was doing time in Arkanis Territorial. For that Crimson Dawn thing. Except instead of us looting the empty ship and blowing up the dock, we’ll make it full of Crimson Dawn guys.”

Han kept talking as he helped Ben get into the TIE Fighter.

“How about the way those Crimson Dawn guys scattered when they saw Kylo Ren?”

“Yeah. That was a really big score. Solo? I’m in trouble. There’s blood in both my eyes. I can’t see at all.”

Han got in the pilot’s seat, pushed the button for the hatch and opened the compartment under the dashboard.

The First Aid kit was still there.

Han opened it, wiped Ben’s face off with a piece of gauze, put a few clips on his long wound and stuck dressings to it.

“That should hold you, until we get you back to your ship.”

Han looked in the top mirror.

“Holy shit! My hair’s down to my shoulders. And my beard is down to the middle of my chest! And this goddamn moustache is ridiculous.”

Han grabbed a couple hair ties, pulled most of his hair back in a ponytail and quickly braided his beard.

“Chewie would hardly know me, like this. But I’ll still wear the eyepatch too. Just in case.”

He got Artemis Skywalker’s eyepatch out of his pocket and put it on.

“She was worried about me. She still loves me. When she lifted the lightsaber over her head? I saw she had her wedding ring on a chain around her neck.”

“I think she still loves you, kid. I’ll bet Rey’s glad I didn’t let her kill you. Not that it was the first time, today that you saw where her ring was.”

“It was all her idea. I mean, she knew the whole place was going to blow, and she still wanted me. Twice.”

“Did Rey tell you we were blowing up the base.”

“She did. But I figured, fuck it. If I can’t die with my boots on with my blaster in one hand and my lightsaber in the other? Might as well die, hard.”

“You didn’t learn that kind of thinking from the Jedi, or the Sith.”

They blasted off.

Han stopped the TIE for a minute, just to watch the explosion.

It ended their jocular, locker room mood.

“Did you feel that? It’s a dark day, Dad. My side blew up Hosnian Prime. Mom’s side blew up Starkiller Base. Both sides will claim victory. But millions of people’s lives have been snuffed out. For no reason. That’s not victory. It’s insanity. This whole war, this whole thing? It’s madness. The Jedi, the Sith, the Dark, the Light? The Empire, the Resistance? Do you think that would matter to any of the people who died today? I’m going to stop it. All of it. It has to end.”

“I can agree with that, Ben. That’s gotta be the smartest thing I ever heard a Skywalker say. That’s only because you’re a Solo, too, kid. You got a plan, Vader junior?”

“Of course I have a farkling plan! First, I have to live long enough to kill Snoke.”

“You will.”

The radio crackled to life.

“Lord Ren, this is General Hux. Why aren’t you flying your TIE Fighter? Please answer.”

“I’ve been wounded. Are you on the bridge?”

“No. This is a private call.”

“Then why are you being so formal?”

“Because I don’t know who is flying your TIE.”

“It’s not Mrs. Young Lord Vader. I took a hit in the face, neck and chest with a lightsaber.”

“By who? Luke Skywalker?”

“No. My estranged and enraged wife. I couldn’t fight back, properly. I didn’t want to hurt her. My father, is flying my TIE Fighter. He just saved my life.”

“What about your wife?”

“She took advantage of me, twice, nearly killed me with the lightsaber I gave her, and went back to the Resistance. But she’ll be back.”

“Is that how you lost Starkiller Base? Too busy making it up with your Rebel wife?”

“My wife is worth ten jumped-up Death Stars. To me, and to the Galaxy.”

“Is that what you will tell the Supreme Leader? It’s shoddy, and weak, and it makes you sound like a child in a fancy-dress mask who’s more concerned with getting his end off than the responsibilities of his office.”

“Yeah, that’s Vader junior in a nutshell. His mask and shoes are polished, you can see your face in them, and so can the troopers in his command crew, most of which are women under those masks.” Han interrupted.

“In a totalitarian society, sex is an act of revolution.” Ben sniffed.

“Kid, you don’t need to give me an excuse. I know about you and your Force Fuck Cult of Action Girls thing. I’m sure it’s nice for you that you finally made it happen. And I’m sure it’s nice for the women, too. But you have to come up with a better excuse than that crazy shit!”

“You just don’t understand anything that has any philosophy or mystery or mysticism to it, do you, Solo? I am trying to bind people to me with love and trust and loyalty, not fear!”

“But you don’t do it with the guys, do you?”

“If I was gay, or bi, I would!”

“You’re proving that Hux and I are right and you’re full of it, Vader junior. Keep talking.”

“What do you want me to tell Snoke? Well, my Master, I was busy getting laid and I was more concerned with my Rebel wife’s hot pussy than your miserable military nerfshit?” Ben snapped.

Han laughed at that.

“Hey, don’t knock it, kid. Why do you think you’re here?”

“Don’t remind me. You have a button missing on your pants. I guess Mom has it. You guys are worse than me and Rey, and you’ve been married for decades!”

“We’ll have to think of something better for you to tell Snoke. What about Millicent? Please tell me you remembered the cat.” Hux interrupted.

“I’m sitting on her carrier. She’s fine. Clean the goddamn litter box, and you’re going to have to feed the cat for awhile.”

“I always feed the cat! Are we going to have your father living in the suite now, too? I wish you would have moved your wife in, instead.”

“Watch what you say about my wife, Armi.”

“You have all the luck with women, Kylo. Do you think Mrs. Skywalker has any Rebel Girl friends who like the Imperial Act?”

“Try all of them. What you need, Hux, is to wear a flight suit. Even if you can’t fly. Rebel chicks love flyboys. And Imperial flyboys? You’ll get lucky. No doubt about it.” Han snorted.

“Solo! You should not say things like that about women! It’s disrespectful!”

“What’s disrespectful about your pal Hux and some brave Rebel fighters getting what they want and having a little fun before we all die, horribly? Isn’t that what you mean when you say that in a totalitarian state, sex is rebellion and love is revolutionary?” Han retorted.

“Not really, Solo.”

Hux interrupted, again.

“So, Kylo, where did this father of yours spring from, this time.”

“Good choice of words. He’s just been sprung from Arkanis Territorial. For that Crimson Dawn affair. I sent for him, to be my guardsman. Now on a permanent basis. He was an Imperial pilot, he knows how to fly a TIE.”

“These new ones are a little different. But not too much. I need coordinates for the Finalizer, and you’d better have a medic ready on the landing bay. It’s not a deep wound, but your Lord and Master is losing a lot of blood. If he needs a donation, you can have some of mine.” Han added.

“Who’s Kylo’s mother?” Hux asked.

“You Darkstars, you think you have a right to know everything. Nosy farkling Arkanian.” Han retorted.

“How did you know my mother was a Darkstar?”

“I know all about you, Hux. One Arkanian to another. She was a savage clan chieftain’s savage daughter. But from the Tattoine clans.”

“I see. You realise I know exactly who you are, Solo, who Kylo is, who his mother is, and who his grandfather is?”

“I know. So, is this nerfshit convincing?”

“Very. You’re as convincing a nerfshit artist and a liar as your son is. I will arrange everything. I am sending the coordinates to your computer. You have priority clearance, Captain Skywalker. Over and out.”

Kylo turned to look at his father.

“You think we can pull this off, Solo?”

“You can just kill anybody who recognizes me, right?”

Ben laughed, and spit blood out of his mouth.

“Sure, when I can see! Rey might have killed me, after all. I’m bleeding halfway down my chest! If I have to be in a bacta tank? Don’t leave me alone. The First Order promotion system is a lot like the Empire. It runs of backstabbing. Some of it, literal.”

“I know that, kid. I used to be in this outfit. I won’t let anyone get to you. And if a bunch of them try? You’ll have less enemies.”

“That’s been the first step of my plan. To weed out anyone on the Finalizer who isn’t loyal to me, and replace them with officers, troopers and crew who are. Don’t kill the assassin’s. Have them arrested. After I’m well, I’ll gather everyone on the flight deck, and make the traitors walk the plank into space.”

“You’re a real ruthless pirate bastard, kid. Here we go.”

***

Rey sat on the bunk, in the little room on the Falcon.

She was going to sew the rip in her leggings, then wash them by hand.

A little further down the leg from the rip, there was a crusty white stain.

Rey picked at it, with her fingernail.

It seemed like quite a lot.

She went to clean it off, with some water from the glass beside her when a sob escaped her throat.

So, I found him again.

My long lost good looking bastard of a flyboy, today.

My beloved husband, to whom I owe, oh, everything.

He’s the one.

I knew when I met him on Jakku.

It’s only that I know now, I’ll never be able to leave him.

Lucky me, he’s tall, and handsome, as big as a Wookie and hung like one, and he’s one hell of a good fuck.

Maybe the best fuck in the Galaxy.

He should be, he’s the baddest badguy in the Galaxy.

No man in the Galaxy is more Imperial than him.

Unlucky me, he’s Kylo fucking Ren, the murderous mystic and Sith warlord the Resistance is sworn to defeat.

But he’s also Ben.

Ben Solo.

And Kylo Skywalker, the Arkanian.

And a Wookiee named Kallaurra, who’s first language was Shriiyywook.

And who else, who knows, my boy Ben is a whole bunch of guys.

But even so?

Ben was a gentleman.

He took me to his quarters, apologized, after, for ruining my leggings, after he locked me in the room and came back with some wet towels and some dry ones.

Told me he wasn’t sure if my implant was still working, that was why he pulled out.

Ben offered me a pair of First Order uniform pants; I declined.

But I did take the pair of knickers and the new leggings.

I’ve never worn knickers, before; these First Order ones are a very high grade of cotton, they are quite comfy, very nice.

And I think these desert leggings are waterproof and rip-resistant.

Ben knew I needed his darkness; he said he needed my light.

So, later, we almost killed each other with lightsabers.

I gave him a nasty scar for being an Imperial bastard and hurting Finn.

Han stopped me from killing him.

But Kylo asked me to be his student; he wanted to teach me the ways of the Force.

He knows what’s between us, and so do I.

He’s my man, I’m his woman, and we belong to each other.

That’s why he couldn’t understand why I called him a monster.

Couldn’t understand why I left him bleeding in the snow.

The look on his face, I’ll never forget it.

He was a hell of a fighter.

Better than me; he was trying not to kill me.

A hell of a lover, too.

He’s the one, he’s your man, you’re his woman, your beloved husband, who’s given you all you have, all he has, and all he’s ever going to have. Not to mention his love, his trust, and his friendship. He’s been your benefactor and your teacher, too. He’s looked after you, and given you something like a life. A life with him. A home. And you tried to kill him, and left him broken-hearted and bleeding in the snow.

Because he’s also a monster.

Yes, Little Rebel Girl, you’ve had a big day.

Rey crumpled her leggings into a ball, threw them aside, and since nobody could see her doing it?

She cried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Rey. She's going to have to come clean, and explain to Master Leia just what's going on. And what will Luke Skywalker think, when Rey tells him just how and where she got Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber?


	5. She Said She Said

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kylo is in a state of suspended animation. With him unable to talk up his legend, Rey, Leia and Phasma discuss the cold, hard truth. Of which Kylo gets a dose when he faces Master Snoke.

Han watched the First Order doctor, with great suspicion.

“Hey! What the hell are you putting in that tube, doc? It’s a bacta tube. Phasma. Come over here.”

Han stuck his blaster in the doctor’s back.

The stormtrooper Captain examined the contents of the vial.

“Lord Ren has already had a sedative.” She replied, tersely.

Han fired.

The murderous doctor crumpled to the ground, and all the activity in the infirmary stopped.

“Can’t get good medical help these days. Who’s next? Where's Talia?"

"Detained by some ruse, so that this assassination attempt could happen. And in the short time it took us, just to walk to Sick Bay!"

"You forgot that elevator with the convenient electrical problem. That's where I smelled a rat." Han reminded her

Phasma barked some orders into a comm link, and two troopers showed up to remove the body, followed by a maintenance droid to clean up.

Han sat back down in his chair.

“These troopers are from Lord Ren’s command crew. They are personally loyal to him. They can be trusted. ZX1435, PZ 2149. Stay outside the door until further notice.”

“We’ll stay all night, Captain.” said one trooper.

“No one gets past us, not while the Chief is in trouble.” Said the other.

“Your son is very much like you, Mr. Skywalker.”

“Captain Skywalker. More than I realized. Those were women’s voices. So is yours. Are most of his command crew women?”

“About half. I owe Kylo a life debt, Captain. Everyone in his command crew, men and women both, would be in a detention block, dead, or on an assignment that made death and prison seem like better choices. We are still in shock at FN2187’s betrayal.”

“He told me he couldn’t trust you not to use this opportunity.”

“Well, I haven’t given him reason to. I’m a very difficult woman, I admit that. And ambitious. But I wouldn’t take his life just to get ahead. I was just Lieutenant Phasma, before Kylo took this ship, and promoted me. And General Hux was Captain Hux.”  
Han sat back in his chair, and looked at Ben floating around helplessly in the bacta tank.

“I was wondering about that. Old Captain Pryde, my old C.O. is the only officer on this ship who’s an old Imperial. And Snoke doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to give his flagship to a kid who wasn't even thirty, yet.”

“Kylo doesn’t wait to be given power. He waits and watches for an opportunity, and then he takes it. Master Snoke is mainly concerned with the religious aspects of the First Order. So is Kylo, for that matter. But he wanted to be Master and Commander of his own Star Destroyer. And not just any Star Destroyer. The fastest ship. The flagship. With the most advanced weapons and navigation. The treasure ship. Well, she used to be the treasure ship. But as I said, Kylo takes what he wants.”

Han smiled, confidentially, and Phasma cleared her throat, uncomfortably.

That smile meant something personal to her.

Han had thought so.

“That’s what you like about him, huh, sister? You seem pretty tough. I’ll bet it’s not easy for you to find a guy who’s as good of a man as you are. So the kid doesn’t like Old Imperials. Or anybody else who wants to tell him what the rules are. And everybody in his command crew and most of the people on his ship owe him one. What did he do to them?”

“The officers who were against us that didn’t die in the battle? He gathered the whole crew on the flight deck. Ordered everyone who doesn’t wear a helmet to put one on. Gave everyone a holiday. With pay. And he had two of the troopers bring out a loading ramp, and position it so half of it was sticking out into the vastness of space. Deep space. Where no one can hear you scream. And he made them walk out into space. If they wouldn’t go, willingly, he picked them up and threw them. And there were two or three in particular that he had reason to hate. Do you know what the Arkanians do to defeated warriors?”

“I am an Arkanian, right, Captain? We'll, my son is. For real. You’re telling me he has a cabinet full of skull mugs?”

“With a glass door. He takes the heads and the hearts, and makes the heads into mugs, with metal and wood. I wouldn’t know how. And preserves the hearts in a different unit that the one where he keeps his food. Then he squeezes the hearts into the skull mug, mixes it with Arkanian ale, and drinks it. He keeps his trophies on display. But sometimes, if the right mood strikes him? He drinks from them.”

Phasma looked at Han, intently.

“I was kinda the best worst father in the Galaxy. Me and Junior, we're just too much alike. I did an okay job. At least I tried. And I knew who he was, all along. I never tried to make him be somebody else. His mother, she…she wanted him to be less like me. Less like his grandfather, who was another crazy Jedi Arkanian warlord. She was busy, all the time, and my copilot is a Wookiee. Has a family of his own. Kylo learned Shriyyywook before he learned basic. He never did take too well to being a human. It’s not in his nature. His Wookiee name is Kallaurra. Wild Man. So? I’m not surprised he’s savage, or ruthless. That’s who he is. His mother thinks that makes him a bad man. She can’t see what’s good in him. I still can. Whatever he calls himself? He's got a good thing going for him, here. I'm proud of him. I know he'll do the right thing in the end."

“Kylo is a man of his word. He’s not treacherous. He never lies. He isn’t cruel, and he has outlawed torture on the Finalizer. He doesn’t kill on a whim, or in cold blood. He’s a good soldier, a fearless warrior, a brilliant commander. His crew are not loyal to him out of fear. They respect him. The Knights of Ren? They fear him. He has the soul of a mystic and the heart of a true Arkanian warrior chieftain. I know him better than just about anyone on this ship, and I can tell you that your son is a good man. He is fair, he is just, and he is committed to his principles. Such as they are.”

Han laughed.

"Like I said. He's too much like me for his own good."

Talia Darklighter, a Human-Twi Lek hybrid, Kylo Ren's personal Jedi Healer and doctor entered the room in a state even more agitated than usual.

"Holy mother Force, they tried to kill him, already. Somebody get this body out of here! It's unsanitary. These droids are cleaning up the debris in the corners, but not the body! And why is Ben in a bacta tank for a flesh wound. I can't trust any of you people...Mr. Solo? Han? Is that you."

"It's me, Talia. But I'm Captain Artemis Skywalker."

"What? Oh, that's right. Ben's crazy legend. Now you're in it, too? I'm surprised I'm not somebody else. Meanwhile? He thinks everyone doesn't know he's just Ben Solo. I need a cigarillo. But I can't smoke, here. I can't deal with it, Phasma! I can't! I've been dealing with Ben's crazy nerfshit since we were six, and I can't take it, anymore! No wonder the wife tried to cut his head off! Have you met the wife?"

"No. But I feel sorry for her. She's just a child. She has no idea what she's gotten herself into."

Talia drained the bacta tank, and unlocked it.

She gave Kylo an injection to wake him up, and he went on a rampage, screaming about the wrong doctor, hating bacta tanks, and assassins. 

No one in the room was impressed.

And Han had enough of Ben's tantrum, real quick.

"BENJAMIN! SETTLE!" Han barked.

Miraculously?

He stopped.

"SIT YOUR ASS DOWN IN THAT CHAIR, NOW!"

Kylo sat.

"Good. Do what Talia tells you. Me and Captain Blondie are going to go figure out this assassination plot. You want these guys alive, or will there be a plank-walking party?" Han snapped.

"Just get rid of them. I don't have time for this." Ben sighed.

Phasma saluted.

Han just smirked and pulled out his blaster.

"Same old Empire." he commented.

***

Leia was surprised that when she went into Rey’s cabin on the Falcon, she wasn’t there.

“Rey?”

Leia walked through to Ben’s cabin, and found Rey, curled up on his bed, hugging his worn, sweat-stained, ratty oilskin duster.

Crying.

She pulled up a chair beside the bed.

“There’s a lot I don’t know, isn’t there?”

“Han stayed with Ben. He said he’s not coming back until he can bring Kylo with him.”

“That makes me worry more about Han, but less about Ben. And you say ‘Ben’ and ‘Kylo’ interchangeably. Besides? That’s not what I meant. Chewie said you’ve been holed up in Ben’s bedroom, crying for hours. How long have you known my son, and what have you done to each other?”

“Do you want to know the whole story?”

Leia pulled up a chair.

“Yes.”

“I had an affair, when I was on Jakku, with the Great Beast. He had this strange, low, flat, halting accent because his first language wasn’t a human language, it was Shriyyywook. He was Arkanian, his name was Kylo Skywalker, but he had been raised on a smuggler’s freighter by a Wookiee. This man? He was the Demon Lover, himself. I met him in a cantina at Niima Outpost. He told me he was a First Order pilot and officer, and the Chieftain of a batallion who did the Imperial Dirty Work. And he did a little smuggling, on the side. He told me he had been taken from the Jedi Temple and enslaved by the Sith, and he hated them, but he had also hated the Jedi Order. He was a Grey Jedi. Every time he could get away, he came to see me. He sent money, when he could, so I could sometimes live in a flat. We fell in love, but it didn’t start with love. It started with passion. And with business. I was the best scavenger at Niima Outpost. I became part of the crew of the _Hellfire,_ Kylo’s ship. I was the scavenger. Sometimes Kylo would be on the ship for weeks, a month, even. Then he would be gone. For weeks. For a month or two. When he was gone, I lived in an apartment, in Mos Eisley. After a year went by, he asked me to marry him. It was supposed to be my 18th birthday, but really it was my 17th. I told him the truth, but it didn’t matter, because I had no birth certificate. No last name. I said yes.”

“Is that when he told you who he was?”

“He told me who he was just about from the start. That he was Ben Solo, and that he was Kylo Ren. But I didn’t really understand what that meant. Ben explained to me that he had to marry me under his real name, or it wouldn’t be legal. But he didn’t use that name, anymore. I mean, I have two sets of identity papers, too. One for Rey Solo, and one for Rey Skywalker. It made sense because he was a smuggler, estranged from the Galaxy’s first family. I just didn’t understand how important that was. How important he was.”

  
“Did he tell you why I stopped talking to him, after his 21st birthday party? Ben had been seduced by my lusty, busty Kesshiri secretary. Minerva was twenty years older than Ben, and married to a drunk, who beat her. She sought to be saved from him by many men. But only my boy Ben was so savage, and so devoted. Minerva’s husband was a big man, too. He got drunk at the party. He taunted Ben, and he said ugly things about Minerva. It turned into a fistfight. To the death, the drunken fool said. He beat my boy like he wanted to kill him. He nearly did. But the fool should have let the Wookiee win. He managed to goad Ben into a rage, and put him in fear for his life. It got very grisly, very fast. Ben pounded Minerva’s husband into ground nerf. He killed the man with his bare hands. At the end, he got the crazy drunken idiot in a headlock, and twisted his head off like the top of a jar. In front of half the government of the New Republic. Naturally, his father cheered him on. There was a scandal, but no arrest. And a month later, Minerva married the senator from Mustafar. She gave no notice, to me, or Ben. He was crushed. I was furious. Ben ran away with Han, and I sent the fleet after the Falcon. Ben begged me to let him have his freedom. He begged Han to defy me. But I made sure he went back to the Jedi Temple. It was the last time I saw him.”

“He talks about you. All the time. Sometimes in a rage, and he says terrible things about you. Other times, like he wants to impress you with how he is a great man, now. How strong you are. How tough. How clever. Sometimes he just talks about his good memories. He always grills Han about you, when he knows Han has been to see you.”

“Just like I’m doing, now. At least Han has tried. Did you guess Han was his father before he told you the rest of the truth?”

“Almost immediately. Kylo met with his father once or twice a month, for their business. And Ben always called Han ‘Solo’. He never acknowledged Han was his father. Which was stupid of him, because I could tell that was his father. And not just from the name. Because Ben and Han? Well, they’re so much alike even though they are both convinced they are so different. They walk the same way. They have the same facial expressions. They both like to grimace and shout and point their fingers when they’re angry.”

Rey laughed a little.

“It was funny, when they would fight. They made the same angry face at each other, and Han would call Kylo ‘Junior’ in the same time Kylo called Han 'Solo'. And they'd glare at each other.”

Rey laughed a little more, then snuggled, and hugged Ben's duster closer to her chest.

“After we got married, I moved into Ben’s home, on Tattoine. And I would stay there, while he was gone. He gave me this lightsaber, his grandfather’s, he said, on our wedding day. And started teaching me about the Force. Kylo said that he followed the Grey Path. He taught me the Grey Jedi oath, and made me a copy of this very valuable book, he owned. A Grey Jedi text, the only formal one in existence. It was unfinished, because both its authors, Qui-Jon Jinn and Anakin Skywalker had died, violently, before they could finish. Kylo said that if he survived this war, he wanted to finish it. I believed him. I still believe him. I know he wasn’t lying about that. But I could feel, more and more, every time I saw him, that he was deceiving me. I just knew something was very wrong. I made the effort to find out the truth about Ben's Imperial identity. It was a terrible shock. And I couldn’t see how the swashbuckling scoundrel I loved could be the villainous, murderous Sith warlord Kylo Ren. The next time he went away. I left him. No, I didn’t leave him. I fled him. I fled our marriage. I fled my whole life, our whole life together. I took nothing. I went back to Niima Outpost, to my life as a homeless scavenger. I just wanted to hide. And I hoped to be left alone. I didn’t think stealing the Falcon, or even getting it back to Han would lead me back to Ben. But everything happened so fast. Fate led me back to Kylo. And I never had a chance.”

Rey was attacked by fresh tears, but she continued.

“General, I don’t understand! How could I do such a thing?”

“Rey, you’re my daughter-in-law. Stop calling me General.”

“Master Leia, I don’t understand myself, anymore! I feel like a hypocrite, condemning Ben for awful acts when I just committed one! Kylo didn’t want Snoke to have me. He bound me, hand and foot, and he found Han and told Han to go and take me away. He wanted to save my life. He risked everything he has, perhaps his own life, certainly Snoke’s wrath to save my life! And I nearly took his!”

“What happened in the forest? How did the fight start?”

“Finn and I were going back to the ship, and I saw Han getting into the TIE Fighter with Kylo. After the explosion. I knew I was losing them both, and I had no idea if or when I would ever see either of them again. I don’t have a father, you know. And Han, he’s sort of, taken over for that. I felt so desolate, I just threw myself into Finn’s arms. He kissed me, and he had his hand on my bottom. It wasn’t planned. I don’t even feel that way, about Finn. And he had no idea I was married. Kylo saw the whole thing. He tore out of that TIE Fighter in a jealous rage and slashed Finn with his lightsaber and punched him right in the face. The strange thing about his jealousy is, Ben and I are not entirely monogamous. When we are not together, we don’t ask each other questions when we’re together again. We agreed on that from the start. And it was never a problem. I think it was just because Finn was one of his men. It was the betrayal. But I didn’t know Finn was one of Kylo’s command crew. And Finn had no idea that I was his Chieftain’s wife. But Ben was furious. I was furious. We were angry at each other about a whole slew of betrayals. We just went at each other with our lightsabers. But Kylo’s anger was never as hot as mine. He told me he was going to mark my face, so no one but him would want to kiss me. And even that was an empty threat. He wanted to stop fighting, almost immediately, and he never intended to kill me. But I just got angrier. I was so furious with him. I cut his face, and he fell, and I would have cut him in half, but Han got his lightsaber and blocked me. Not an hour before, we…we were together, and I almost cut him in half! What’s the matter with me?”

“You were furious, Rey. Ben lied to you. He did, when he made it sound like he was just some minor functionary for the First Order. And the truth was so enormous, it was a betrayal. Then? I think when you met him again, you were sure you wouldn’t feel the same way. But you did. You were sure he wouldn’t be the same man. But he was. It’s enough to make you want to kill him. But rage is not your ally, and it’s a piss-poor source of strength.”

“How is it you understand, so well?”

Leia sighed.

“I have been persistently inflicted with my father since the night he died. I took a walk in the woods of Endor, alone, right after his funeral. No sooner was I away from the camp and there was Anakin Skywalker. Big as life, blue and glowing. He told me that he knew I was his daughter the minute he met me. But he said nothing, because he figured I would agree to be his apprentice, and then at my first opportunity I would kill him and take over the Galaxy. He was right, too. Then he told me that I did a good job using Luke as the bullet to fire at the heart of the Empire. I shouted at him that if he wanted us to win, why did he fight so hard? You know what he said?”

Rey shook her head.

“He said, but Leia, the Galaxy belongs to us, still. The Skywalkers. I wanted my children to rule the Galaxy after I was dead. I should like to have lived longer, and had you rule at my side, but either way? I still win. Now the Galaxy is yours. When Palpatine rises again, to take it from you? Don’t let him. You see, Rey, Ben is also like his grandfather. He’s a living paradox. He cares, deeply about his family, and the people he loves. To him, love and loyalty are everything. But he means it when he says that the stars belong to him. And he’s right. He’s a Skywalker.”

Leia sighed, heavily.

“I quit my Jedi Training with Luke because the Old Jedi Order wasn’t for me any more than it was for Ben. I let my father train me. In the Grey Path. I am, very quietly, the most powerful Force-sensitive being in the Galaxy. If I wanted to? I could close my eyes, snap my fingers and make the whole First Order go away. But then I would, have to live, forever, with the sound of millions upon millions of voices crying out in pain and terror for an instant, and then being silenced. Forever. I haven’t been allowing Gran’pappy Vader to speak to me for seven years. I blamed him for what happened to Ben. I’ll have to start letting the old bastard through, again.”

“It must be a terrible burden. Having that kind of power.”

“It is. But it’s also a great gift. You just have to learn to use it, wisely. You’ll see. Now, back to the forest. What happened to Han and Ben?”

“Han took Kylo back to the TIE Fighter and I took Finn back to the Falcon. They got away, too. But I could feel the anguish in Ben, when Starkiller Base exploded. He felt every death, personally, as well as every death in the Hosnian Cataclysm. It horrifies him. The waste of life. Like you said, the cries of millions of voices. Crying out in pain and terror. And then? Forever silenced. He wants to make it all stop, somehow. I think he feels that’s his destiny.”

“Then there’s more hope for Ben than I thought. Do you still have the map?”

“Yes.”

“I still want you to find my brother. This is all good news, Rey. I have a daughter in law. Ben is married. And he has a home. I’m very happy to hear that. It means that Ben has a reason to live. And you and Han can help him find his way back. This is actually very good. He taught you the Grey Path, not the ways of the Sith. And he thinks of himself as a Grey Jedi, not as a Sith. He didn’t give you to Snoke. And he didn’t kill his father.”

“He tried. Han took his lightsaber and disabled it.”

“Well, he didn’t shove him off the catwalk. It’s better than nothing. But in the future? Try to control your temper. I know my son. He has a terrible history of falling for the wrong woman. All he ever wanted was to love a woman who loved him. If he married you, and gave you my father’s lightsaber, if he found the strength to defy Snoke to save you? I know he loves you. He will never hurt you. He’ll let you kill him, before he hurts you. You can yell at him. And throw things at him. And call him names. But please? No more lightsaber duels. This is a dangerous weapon. You know that, now.”

“I will try, Master Leia.”

“That’s a good start. Don’t worry about Ben. His father will look after him, until he’s well. And you’ll be training with my brother.”

***

Kylo hated kneeling before Snoke, and Snoke knew it.

"I can't tell if it's me you resent, or if you resent kneeling before any man. It's a different story for women, though, isn't it, boy? Speaking of women, I see that you have recovered from your tiff with your wife. Were you hurt that badly, young Solo?”

“Yes, Master Snoke. It wasn’t the wound that was serious. It was the great loss of blood.”

“You have not been the most agreeable apprentice. Over the years, I have been able to see why Skywalker wanted to cut off your insolent head. But you never tried to cut off my head, and add it to your collection? I keep hearing about your prowess as a man, and your wife and apprentice didn't try to cut off your balls, so it must be you’re a good husband, and a bad Master.”

“I was that. A bad Master. The mistake was mine, Master Snoke. I was partially untruthful with her. I told her I was Kylo Ren. And Ben Solo. But I never said just how important either of those guys were. Now I must earn back her trust. Rey is important to my plans, and to yours.”

"Then you've been a bad husband, too. Making a woman a good husband isn't just about your cocksmanship, boy. And it has nothing to do with your skill as her Master. Learn from this mistake, Kylo. But yet, she is your wife, and you are passionate about her.”

“A Sith gains strength through passion, Master.”

“That he does. So, now you have your father on the Finalizer? And you would bring your wife on board, too?”

“My father has no interest in religion or politics. But I can trust him to keep the knives out of my back. I have many enemies. My own Knights of Ren would kill me as soon as look at me if I showed weakness. Or to gain your favor.”

Snoke laughed.

“You have too much of your father’s heart in you, young Solo. But you also have his amoral animal cunning. What about your mother’s ambitions? Do you think he is not here at her behest?”

“My mother is a Skywalker. She used her brother to kill my grandfather and take the Galaxy for herself, it’s only natural she would try the same thing with me. But my father is no fool. He doesn’t do her bidding. This is about business, and family for him. Nothing else. He’s no use to me, dead. It would interrupt my business, and I would be sacrificing an ally for no reason. Besides? Rey will be more likely to trust me, to trust this place with the Old Man around. She wishes he were her father.”

Kylo shook his head, and chuckled, mirthlessly.

“You have all the answers, today, boy. Sometimes I think you only pretend to be a petulant child in a mask.”

“Even if I take off the mask, Master Snoke? I will still be masked. Kylo Ren is a mask.”

“Philosophical today, too, aren’t we?”

“Forgive me, Master. It’s illness and inaction that have made me moody.”

“Well, I am feeling a bit moody, too, my apprentice. Because I lost Starkiller Base. You were paying more attention to your Rebel Wife than to your duties."

“I may be a powerful man, Master, but I am just a man."

"Yes, but can you stop proving it? Constantly? The only things you really seem to care about are fucking, money, fighting, drinking, and consoludating your own power and wealth so you can fuck, drink, and fight to your pirate heart's content? You're thirty years old, Kylo. Are you going to grow up, and become something more than my wayward warlord apprentice, soon?"

"Forgive me, Master. For being a man who is deeply in love with his hot-blooded wife. I lost my head. I admit it. But, if she lives with me, as my apprentice, on the Finalizer, I won’t have any reason to go into such a state of derangement, again.”

“Evading my question by pretending to abase yourself. Still, I thought you would like to me, and tell me I did not lose Starkiller because you were rutting your spaceport tomboy wife. Why didn’t you lie? You're a marvelous liar."

Kylo shrugged.

"Any fool would see through a lie like that. And you are no fool, Master.”

“Flattery will not help you, now. What about Phasma? Do you think it wise to have your wife and your mistress on the same ship?”

“They know about each other, Master.”

Snoke chuckled.

“May the Force save us all from the legion of warrior women who are your army of lovers. I sometimes wonder if you do have some plan, Kylo. Or if you really fancy yourself a Force Shaman, as of old. Or perhaps you are just hopelessly decadent. The ugly duckling has become a black swan, and he needs women, many women to need him. To make him forget he was once an awkward boy who was rejected by his own mother, for being so inadequate for her dreams for him.”

Snoke felt only cold fury and contempt coming from his apprentice.

The boy was hard, he was diamond-hard, and he always had been.

Under the torture protocol he had laughed when he was beaten and sang when he was tortured.

He had survived six months in a detention cell, on the protocol, with no bed, no clothes, little food, and the lights on all the time 

You could not break this apprentice of his; or at least he could not.

But the girl, the Rebel wife?

She could break him.

“What about Starkiller Base?”

Kylo Ren took off his mask, and bowed his head.

“I hope you won’t have me thrown back in the detention block, again, Master, but we can cajole more fools into signing up, and buy more children from their neglectful drunken parents, and we can build one, two, three, many military bases. There is only one of my wife. She is precious to me, and because of her power, she should be precious to you. Together, and in the unity of balance with the Force? She and I are worth ten million stormtroopers and a thousand military bases. I had to make a choice. I chose to sacrifice a thing that can be replaced to save a thing that can’t. I did it for us. For our cause. For you, my Master.”

Snoke was surprised.

He laughed a dry cackle that sounded like dessicated December leaves crunching under thick bootheels.

He turned his apprentice’s face up to his and backhanded him across the mouth with his left hand on which he wore his heavy gold and obsidian ring.

Blood spattered onto the floor, and a drop or two onto Snoke’s robes as the boy fell over on his side.

“Look at me, boy!"

Snoke grabbed Kylo by his hair and dragged him back to his knees.

The boy's dark eyes were filled with rage, and tears of humiliation.

“Yes, Benjamin, an old bastard like me would come apart in your hands like a stewed chicken. But you haven't the strength to strike me down! Impertinent whelp! Disrespectful though you are, and incompetent though you have been, there is some truth in your face-saving excuse.”

He threw Kylo back to the floor.

“Stay down, on your belly, and crawl! You will bring her to me, before the month is out. Let her suffer on whatever miserable turd of a planet that she toils on with mad Skywalker, for a time longer. After I have seen that she is, if not willing, then amenable to join you? You can complete her preliminary training. One, two, three, many military bases! If I had another ship to lose and another battalion of Imperial veterans to sacrifice with it, I would put you in irons, again. If for no other reason that to see what you would do, this time.”

Kylo Ren stood up.

Even though he had been told to stay on his belly and crawl.

His mouth had filled with blood and he spat it onto the floor of Snoke’s throne room.

“I would spare those who were loyal to me, and make the rest walk into space. Those who survived the escape. Except the officers. I’d take their heads, to add to my collection of skull mugs. And as I have the Finalizer, I’d have the ship dismantled and sell the parts.” Kylo replied.

“What about raping all the women, you savage warlord!” Snoke asked, archly.

“I wouldn’t have to resort to rape.”

Snoke laughed.

“You know I really do like you, my apprentice. It’s because of my affection for you that I am so lenient with you. You forgot to mention that with Starkiller Base destroyed that you, the owner of the wreck of the Second Death Star and the Master and Commander of the Finalizer are in command of the Galaxy’s most powerful weapons, again.”

“I had not even thought of that, my Master.”

“Now that is a lie, Kylo. Go back to your ship. And keep your relatives in line. Oh dear, my ring caught the corner of your mouth. Have that seen to, before you leave. I insist.”

Kylo Ren put his mask back on.

“Yes, my Master. But do us, and the Galaxy both a great service."

"Don't slap you around?"

Snoke cackled, again.

"No, boy, I don't think I will. You'll spit blood in my eye and blow up the whole ship with us on it. And laugh. You are a fine apprentice. Take that mask off, and come here."

Gently, Snoke wiped the blood from Kylo's face with his sleeve.

"You were never an ugly duckling, young Vader. You were a beautiful boy, and you gave grown to be a handsome man. You may have your empire, Kylo, with my blessing. Just make sure you are as zealous with your duties to mine."

Snoke put his hand against Kylo's face, and held it there until he had healed the cut.

"No harm done. I wished only to make my point. You may go, now, my boy."

"Thank you, my Master."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was creepy. And now? On to Ahch-to! Also? I am aware that Phasma's version of how Kylo got the Finalizer is a little different than the one you saw in Chapter One. Why? Keep in mind. Ben/Kylo is living in his own legend. And Phasma is more of a realist.


End file.
